I have been blessed with many amazing friends in my lifetime, throughout each of the various chapters along the way God has given me special people that I will always hold dear in my heart. Many of them have been an inspiration and help to me in my journey to grow in God’s truth; however, there has never been a friend that has been unto me as the friend I have in my Lord and Savior. He has never left me nor forsaken me. He is my friend.

“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24

No matter where life has taken me, no matter what I have faced, He has always been there steady and sure; providing all things as I have had need. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

He loved me and formed me, choosing me; loving me so much that He gave His life for me. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

He gave His life for me that I might live. I want to give my life to serve Him, to be His friend. I want to be a friend to Jesus, one day I would like to hear Him say, “Welcome Home my servant, my friend.”

“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14

Abraham was a friend of God, because he believed in God and the finished work of Calvary that he knew would one day be complete. “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” James 2:23

I want this to be said of me. “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” John 15:15 I want to be a friend to Jesus, for He is my friend.

Growing up I was mystified by old deserted mansions, it was always my dream to one day find a rare gem and restore it to its original glory. I envisioned it nestled within the overgrowth of silent stories that hung within the branches of stately old oaks, sheltered from the onward movement of years of time.

As I grew up I discovered many of these old mansions within the pages of books, learning of families of old that had once called similar structures home. Families that had met with numerous hardships and struggles, some that forced them out of their home and some that caused them to retreat within the walls of their home seeking solitude from a world that had rejected them. Today, I often find myself seeking this same sense of solitude; but, rather than retreating within the walls of a stately old home from the past, I find myself seeking refuge within the arms of my Lord. He has become my habitation.

“Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort: thou has given commandment to save me; thou art my rock and my fortress.” Psalm 71:3

A fortress is a strong hold, a place of security. In my mind I envision the massive walls of a castle within which no harm can come for the Lord stands guard. He is my fortress, within Him I see refuge and find strength. He has promised to protect me from the evil that lies beyond, because I have made Him my habitation.

“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Psalm 91:9-10

Habitation – a dwelling place.

I have made the Lord my habitation, in Him I have placed my trust. Within my habitation, I need fear no evil, for in my habitation I find rest and peace.

“And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Isaiah 32:18

There are days when I find myself completely in need of someone to step in and lift me up, someone to release me from all the things of this world that bury me deep. It seems that I become so entangled in this life that the bondage I once felt as a lost sinner begins to engulf me and I need someone to step in and free me. When I was lost He saved me out of the miry pit of sin and I’m forever His with the promise of an eternal home with Him; yet I can still become so worn down with the cares of this life that I need my Redeemer to help me.

A redeemer is the one that frees from captivity, releases from blame or debt, helps to overcome, frees from the consequences of sin. “As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 47:4

Aside from Him there is no other, He alone is my Redeemer. Just like the words of the song, “He sought me and bought me.” “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

He saved me and nothing I will ever do will change that, He alone stands ready to help me, to deliver me, for He has redeemed me. He is my Redeemer. “And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.” Psalm 78:35

He is my God, my strength, my Redeemer. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

With God as my Redeemer, I need never fear. Things may come and things may go; but He remains steadfast and sure. I need only rest, looking into Him, my Redeemer.

“Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.” Jeremiah 50:34

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:” Job 19:25

Often I look forward, trying to predict in my mind what will happen and what I should do to prepare. What do I need to have in place to ensure that I have what I need? Will I have the strength I need to meet the needs of the day when the time comes? While it is good to prepare and plan, the responsibility of the preparation lies with our Heavenly Father. He knows what tomorrow holds, He knows what needs to be done ahead of time, and He has promised to provide.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Matthew 6:25

Whatever the need might be, God is there with sufficient provision to meet that need. “But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.” Deuteronomy 15:8

So it becomes God that directs us giving us the provision and the strength daily to meet the needs of that day. “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” Isaiah 25:4

Yesterday we did not need the strength to face today. Today we do not need strength from tomorrow, we simply need strength for today. If we were to receive from God all of the strength we needed from now until we leave this life, there would be no need for a daily walk with Him. So it is that we move from strength to strength as we appear before Him each day.

“They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” Psalm 84:7

So today I look to Him for strength, resting in the promise that tomorrow He will be there to provide, once again moving me from strength to strength as the need arises.

“In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” Psalm 72:7

In sharp contrast to what we are experiencing today, this verse gave me pause. First, I would not say the righteous are flourishing and second, evidence of the abundance of peace is rare. This verse is part of a prayer that David brought before God for his son Solomon. He was seeking God in his desire for Solomon to follow after righteousness, leading the people to know the abundance of peace. He was praying for his son and his people regarding the way to peace, which he knew all too well was through pursuing a life of righteousness.

Sadly, today it is rare to find parents praying such prayers for the lives of their children. For the most part their goals and aspirations are centered around wealth and fame, regardless of what the cost might be. The cost has been that evil has crept in through the lack of prayer in our homes. The Bible has become covered in dust and families no longer make priority for God in their lives. So it is that we find ourselves in a time when righteousness has become viewed by the world as evil and evil has become that which is viewed as right. A time when the way to peace has been lost by the world at large; and now, across our Country. A country that was once established around the principles of righteousness no longer knows the way to peace.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

“Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” Isaiah 5:23

“The way of peace they know not: and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.” Isaiah 59:8

The door has been open and the welcome mat has been laid out for the ways of darkness that have invaded homes across America. Darkness that has destroyed families, leaving children to follow paths of destruction. Parents have failed to uphold the ways of righteousness, they failed to pray for the ways of their children and now the way to peace as been lost.

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:14-18

Oh, that we might find our way back, that we might restore the power of prayer. That we might once again spend time praying over the hearts and minds of our children before darkness creeps in to steal their lives. That righteousness might once again flourish, bringing about once again the way to peace. “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:79

Sometimes I love nothing more than to sit and contemplate the magnificence of my God. To close my eyes and envision all that He is and is not. Just, Pure, Holy, Faithful, Longsuffering, Merciful, Full of Grace, Righteous, All Knowing, All Powerful, All Truth, All Loving, Beyond all of my Understanding.

“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” Psalm 116:5

“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” Isaiah 40:28

He is Not Limited, Not Slack, Not a Respecter of Persons, Not Unjust, Not Weary, Not Willing that Any Should Perish, Not Unknowing, Not Unreachable.

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Isaiah 59:1

God is my All, my Strength, my Saviour, my Jehovah. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.” Isaiah 12:2-4

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” Psalm 28:7

“For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.” Psalm 96:4

Because of Who He is and Who He is not, I will Praise Him.

“To be a witness is to simply tell what you know.” This was part of Pastor’s sermon last night that really stuck out in my mind, bringing me to reflect upon what that means for us individually. Down through time there have been different types of witnesses. In the book of Joshua we find that the stone upon which the Word of God was written became a witness to the children of Israel, a reminder of what God had done in their lives and that He would always be their God.

“And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.” Joshua 24:26-27

In Isaiah we read of the witnesses called to give testament of God, to tell of the only one with the power to save His people. Throughout all of time He was and is God, the only true God.

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord ; and beside me there is no saviour.” Isaiah 43:10-11

Again in John, we read of a witness that was sent to share the message of the Light that had been sent into a lost and dying world. The Light that would guide man out of darkness. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” John 1:6-7

Through this Light man can see. Those who have come to the Light have a witness within, the Spirit of God that gives testimony that they have become a child of God. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” Romans 8:16

As children of God that have come to the Light, we are to be a witness to all we meet of the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.” Acts 26:22-23

To be a witness is simply to tell what we know, to share the wonderful news of what Jesus has done for us.We all have different stories to tell of our experience coming to know Him, but our witness is all the same. The same witness down through time, we all came as a sinner seeking forgiveness, to a Savior who died to pay the penalty of our sins; a Savior that was buried and rose again so that He might give us Eternal Life. To be a witness is to simply tell what we know, it’s not complicated at all, it’s our story to tell about how we came to know to Jesus.

As a child I use to sing the song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, even today the words still hold such vivid truth for me. The older I get the more I understand that everything that occurs in my life rests in His hands. “For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.” Ecclesiastes 9:1

Some days I find myself in a stew trying to figure things out for myself, a complete waste of my time. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen it all rests in the hands of my God who loves me and sees my need not only for today, but also for tomorrow. He is all powerful, in complete control of every situation I face even before I know what is happening He has a plan in place.

“Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.” 1 Chronicles 29:12-13

A much better use of my time would be to simply spend time praising Him for who He is and stop trying to control what He is already managing quite well. More times than not I get in His way, creating more of an issue of things than the situation called for in the first place. We serve God, not a little god who lacks power and wisdom, but the God of the Universe, the Creator of all things the all powerful one. I’d say it’s high time I remembered that, because He’s got this; I’m the limiting factor. He’s got the whole world in His Hands.

“And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?” 2 Chronicles 20:6-7

“And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.” 2 Chronicles 20:8-9

Sometimes we look upon the world around us and wonder how God could allow it all to continue. The evil that seems to thrive, while the light around us seems to grow dim. We hear the news, standing in indignation over the events of the day, all the while the Lord extends His hand of mercy toward a world that is destroying itself from within. As we look upon the sin of our day we need to be reminded, that God is merciful and longsuffering providing opportunity for men to come to repentance. He is in control of the swinging of the pendulum of time and time is continuing in His longsuffering.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

Today, God looks across the world that He created, extending His mercy just as He did in the days of Noah. “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” 1 Peter 3:20

When we become frustrated with all that is going on, we need only look around with the understanding that each person is a living soul that will spend eternity somewhere. Each soul is one for which Jesus Christ died. We need to lose sight of “me” and what might happen to make “me” uncomfortable, becoming concerned with “others” and the eternity they face unless they come to repentance.

“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4

It was the goodness and longsuffering of God in our lives that brought us to a saving knowledge of Him. Why would we want less for anyone else? “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” Psalm 86:15

As we continue to live in His longsuffering, let’s spend our time looking upon the souls of those around us knowing that time is running out. Instead of righteous indignation, we need to be filled with compassion. We need to look beyond the hate and see a soul that is dying without hope.

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;” Colossians 3:12